Rasín Isurún (1824 – 1913) was a Dominican revolutionary and military commander. He was a hero of two independence wars of the Dominican Republic.
He was born in 1824 in the city of Puerto Plata. He was the son of a Dutch emigrant and a native Dominican. Not much is known about his childhood or adulthood, but it is acknowledged that he was a soldier in the Dominican War of Independence.[1]
When the Dominican Restoration War erupted and the patriots started fighting in Puerto Plata, on August 27, 1863, Isurún, who was already recognized as a man of action, returned to arms and marched into combat. At first the city was under the control of the restorers, who forced the occupants to lock themselves in and remain besieged in the San Felipe Fortress. However, and as reports of the fighting that began on the Line in mid-month, had reached the respective captain generals of Cuba and Puerto Rico, since the two Caribbean islands under the control of Spain, had been dispatched with important reinforcements, which began to disembark in Puerto Plata on the night of August 27, 1863. Those troops reinforced the besieged, and a war broke out in fierce battle for control of the city, which was the scene of indescribable cruelties and horrors, of murders and the pillage committed by the invaders. Given the ostensible numerical and material superiority of the invading Spanish army, the patriots were forced to retreat to the fields to continue the resistance.[2]
The Spanish maintained control of the ruined city, and from there, under the command of the Spanish general Mariano Cappa and Juan Suero, they started the march towards Santiago, in aid of those who were under siege in that city. Isurún, together with commanders Pedro Gregorio Martínez and Juan Bonilla, settled in the Jácuba camp, on the road from Puerto Plata to Santiago, through Palo Quemado. These forces caused heavy casualties to the columns of the invaders, part of which they had to retreat in their first attempt to make their way to Santiago. When the fronts were stabilized in Puerto Plata, Isurún was appointed Plaza Assistant from the active camp of Maluis, in which almost every one fought days. During the war, Rasín Isurún had different bosses, among which included generals Carlos Medrano, Juan Nouesí and General Gaspar Polanco himself, who was the Chief Operations Superior throughout that line.[3]
Isurún, a soldier in two patriotic wars, acquired the rank of general by the end of the Dominican Restoration War.
According to his biographer, Rufino Martínez, Isurún died in 1913, at the age of 89.[4]
Martínez also comments on the modifications suffered by the original surname of this character. Thus, Iseroen or Iserven was lost as it suffered alterations in people's speech and use. Iseruén, first; Isurún later. Ultimately it has remained in Surún, which is how the descendants of the ancient warrior use it and how it has spread throughout the areas of Puerto Plata and other regions of the country.